Ingólfshöfði Puffin Tour

Birdwatching and History Trip

Cape Ingolfshofdi is an isolated headland on the coast half way between Skaftafell in Vatnajokull National Park and Jökulsárlón ice lagoon. This historical nature reserve is home of thousands of nesting seabirds, like puffins and great skuas. The cape is named after the first settler of Iceland, Ingolfur Arnarson, who spent his first winter in Iceland there in the year 874 AD.

To get to Ingólfshöfði we cross 6 km of waters, marshes, and sands in a tractor-drawn hay cart. The drive takes about 25-30 minutes each way, so we spend about 1 1/2 hour hiking around the cape. The tractor driver from the nearby farm becomes the tour guide, tells stories and explains the birdlife, and leads the guests safely through the nesting grounds on the cape.

The circle we hike around the nature reserve is 2-3 km long. In the beginning we need to walk up a steep sand slope, and then through rocky terrain, but then it gets easier, mostly hiking on flat grassland and we make many stops along the way. We don't recommend that people participate in this trip unless they can do this hike.

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Serious photographers please note. We will stay for a while to photograph the puffins but not very long in each place. We recommend to book our Ingólfshöfði Photo Tour at 5:55 AM for max 12 clients, that we offer couple of times each week in summer.

Check out our photo gallery to see more about our trip :-)

Important!

Be careful to bring good outdoor clothing for this trip, the area is exposed to winds and rain, and sometimes sand storms. Perfect trip to try out your gore-tex outfit and gloves and hats, but on the other hand, sometimes it is possible to wear shorts and t-shirts on the trip. The Icelandic weather is included in the Ingólfshöfði Puffin Tour :-)

Cancellation policy

• We will charge a cancellation fee of 100% if booking is cancelled 1 day or less before the event

• We will charge a cancellation fee of 50% if booking is cancelled 3 days or less before the event

• We will charge a cancellation fee of 10% if booking is cancelled 14 days or less before the event

Late August - October and April/May

We only want to sell the tour under the name puffin tour when we are quite sure to see some puffins. However in the months around the puffin season we still like to take people to our favorite place in the world, an amazing place of saga, landscape and nature experience. Check out our Ingólfshöfði Royal Coast Tour if you are here in that time of year.

Booking Calendar